ChannelTimes

In a bid to boost local manufacturing, the government is planning to offer more incentives to mobile part makers. The efforts aimed at making India a full-blown mobile components and accessories production hub in the next three to four years. According to the Economic Times report, the government, as a part of phased plan, is likely to change duty structures around mobile phone components such as camera module, printed-circuit board (PCB) and keyboards to expand the manufacturing base locally by next year. “There is a provision to manufacture a few accessories in...

Ericsson is reportedly planning to lay off between 3,000 and 4,000 staff this summer, according to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Thousands more may have to go at the network equipment manufacturer as management look for additional cost savings of 10 billion Swedish kronor (US$1.2 billion), the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources. Ericsson had around 115,000 staff in April, 17,000 of them in Sweden. A spokeswoman declined to discuss the news report, saying the company does not comment on rumors and speculation. Ericsson is facing increasing competition from Nokia, which swallowed its...

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn, the professional social network, for USD 26.2 billion in its biggest-ever deal. The combined entity is expected to reach out to more customers and partners, who can see tremendous innovation in the social-cloud collaboration, according to the two companies. In a letter written to Microsoft employees about the acquisition, the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned that Microsoft’s strategy is to integrate social, collaboration, communication and productivity to help its customers achieve business objectives of faster growth and quicker innovation. For developers he talked about APIs that are...

Virtualisation and cloud infrastructure provider VMware has announced the intention to acquire a software-defined data center security and operations firm-Arkin Net. With the acquisition of Arkin, and through the integration of VMware vRealize Suite, cloud management teams will have access to a new generation of planning, troubleshooting and automation platform that provide visibility and control across the entire data center environment. With the acquisition of Arkin, VMware vRealize Suite will have the ability to extend across the entire SDDC, including the VMware NSX network virtualization layer. “Arkin is a great...

The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India’s (IRDAI) has floated a proposal to set up an online insurance self-network platform for e-commerce operations, to bring in financial inclusion services for the deprived sections of the country. The move is also aimed at inflating the penetration of insurance services in the country. As per IRDA, ”Mobile internet usage in rural areas has gone up significantly in the last two years. We are particularly heartened by the response to the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana scheme. It was a brilliantly conceived idea for...

Symantec and Blue Coat, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Symantec will acquire Blue Coat for approximately $4.651 billion in cash. The transaction has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2016. Greg Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Blue Coat, will be appointed Chief Executive Officer of Symantec and join the Symantec Board upon closing of the transaction. Read Also:Symantec Partners With Hosting Providers For Encryption Everywhere Blue Coat is the...

Shoppers today no longer simply go to the nearest store; they grab the nearest digital device. The online retail ecosystem is fast evolving. Digital analytics firm eMarketer projects that online retail sales will more than double between 2015 and 2019 and account for more than 12 per cent of global sales by 2019. Retail therapy is giving way to e-tail therapy. Amazon followed by Filpkart and Snapdeal were the most preferred e-commerce websites among sellers, with highest top of the mind recall, a recent study has revealed. Read Also:Samsung India...

While Walmart, the retail chain with 11,527 stores is promising to match the competitor’s price if the shopper exhibits an advertisement of the same product, eCommerce giant, Amazon is betting big on price drops for its merchandise, purchased recently by shoppers. If the pricing of a product is slashed within 7 days of purchase, Amazon will refund the difference to the consumer. As per experts in the retail segment, the third party refund tracking applications have influenced Amazon’s pricing algorithm concluding in lowered margins retrospectively. For competitors of Amazon, it...

TalentSprint, the Youth Career Accelerator in India, has unveiled a series of new digital programs aimed at BTech, BSc fresh graduates and final semester students who hail from tier 2 and tier 3 regions and are seeking their first job in the IT sector. With a mission to empower one million youth realize their career dreams, TalentSprint intends to position these holistic, well-rounded programs as one-stop career solutions that can help rural and semi-urban youth overcome traditional barriers of gender, geography, and privilege. While young college graduates across the nation...